Crime victims in Chicago, including funerals, marches and shrines to victims of random gun violence.
In July, two 12-year-old kids were shot to death in separate incidents of gang shootings. The unintended victims of the drive-by shootings were Tsarina Victoria Powell, July 10 in Englewood, and Miguel DeLaRosa , July 19 in Humboldt Park.
CITY2000 photographer Carlos J. Ortiz attended the services for each child, as well as a rally in Englewood led by ministers and community activists.
From the TRIB: Tsarina was sleeping in her bed at 2 a.m. on July 10 when a high-powered rifle spray up to two dozen bullets into her apartment in the 5900 block of South Honore Street. Police said the girl was the victim of a drug dispute. Her slaying galvanized the community. ""We've been silent too long"" said Emmett Moore, a CAPS volunteer (Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy -- which reintroduced beat officers to neighborhoods). ""But it's never too late.""
""Sometimes it takes a tragedy of this nature to bring our people together"" added Cash Crenshaw, deacon of the Cosmopolitan Community Church.
Service for Tsarina, known as 'smiley' because of her happy nature, were held July 15 in New Covenant M.B. Church, 740 East 77th Street. A booklet at the services included this 'message from Tsarina' to her killers: ""When it's your turn to meet My Father God and My Savior Christ, the blood of my soul will show up on your hands. And when you come to this holding place of Souls, you will see me here and I will forgive you. .... So while you are down there on the earth murdering innocent bodies, vengeance is my Lord's, my God's. And the payment for what you did to me is death, unless you repent and ask my Father God for forgiveness in His son Christ. and change your ways.""
With the help of the community and the media, including Sun-Times columnist Mary A. Mitchell, Tsarina had a full funeral, her coffin surrounded by flowers. Police officers bought a headstone for her grave. Donations reached $10,000 for a reward in the case. Two suspects were arrested and charged with first-degree murder: Derrick L. Martin, 19, and Michael Barnes, 28.
Miguel DeLaRose was riding his bicycle through his neighborhood on a Wednesday evening when Joseph L. Lopez, 18, allegedly stood up through the sunroof of a car and fired three shots at pursuing vehicles. Some witnesses said police charged the wrong man.
Services were July 24 at Armitage Baptist Church, 2451 N. Kedzie, where the associate pastor, the Rev. Chris Coury, told the Sun-Times: ""Half the congregation are gangbangers and drug abusers. This is not a wake-up call. This is a confirmation of the type of neighborhood we live in.""